Damn ham will get you every time

For nearly a week the St. John river has been the object of interest as the province, and some parts of the world, watched the rescue attempts directed towards Chaka, a Tibetan mastiff.

The 14 month old dog escaped from her new owner two days after she was purchased from a breeder in Quebec.   Chaka spent her time running up and down the icy river.  Occasionally she would come to shore but would bolt back onto the ice whenever anyone got too close.

Various attempts by animal control officers and the fire department were made to lure the dog off the ice without success.

Today, I’m glad to say, a home cooked ham with brown sugar and mustard sauce did the trick.  This tasty morsel was placed in a humane trap on the shore.  Chaka just followed her nose.

Chaka will return to Quebec with the breeder.   Her owner will be given a new puppy to take her place.

We have survived yet another snow storm.   My DH  is contemplating adding a lawn mower attachment to the snow blower.  He figures he will need the snow blower until sometime in June, then use the lawn mower for the short summer months.

Stand by me

The wife-in-law emailed this to me while I was writing the previous entry.  Thought it was quite appropriate. Enjoy.

moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741

Now if I could only learn how to embed videos………..

Apparently I’m an S.O.B.

Every Sunday I call my children by telephone and force them to speak with me whether they want to or not.  When I called Andrea this Sunday she was very excited.  The conversation went like this…….

Mom, you’re an S.O.B.

I am not.

Yes you are.

I am not. If you keep talking like this, I’m going to hang up.

No Mom, Liz Strauss, this really cool influential blogger from Chicago gave you the S.O.B. award.

Andrea, did you pay her to do that?

And that is how I found out all about Liz, her blog and her Successful Outstanding Blogger award.  As this is the first time I won an award, I am very happy, excited and thankful. 

My daughter Andrea has been blogging for years.  She would often relate the ups and downs in the lives of  her on-line friends.  People whom she had never met, but still felt close to.  I’m  very familiar with Andrea’s invisible friends as she has imaginary ones since the age of two,  but that’s another story.  For a long time Andrea tried to convince me to write my own blog.   I would leave comments on her site, and occasionally even write an entry.

Andrea persevered and six months ago set up this blog for me.  It is now a part of my every day life.  Like my daughter, I too, now have on-line friends,  people whom I may never meet face to face………but people I call friends.     I owe a great deal to my daughter Andrea and what she taught me about blogging.  To my DH, thank you for providing me with a digital camera.  To my brother Andy, thank you for being my photographer before I owned the camera and for showing me how to edit pictures. 

And to my invisible friends, thank you for taking time to read my daily ramblings.  I’m an S.O.B.  because of you.

Miss Andrea, you will note that I managed to insert the SOB thingamabob on the side bar all by myself….drum roll please.

Every woman grows up to be her mother: it is her curse. No man does, and that is his. Oscar Wilde.

Growing up my sister Wanda and I knew our Mom had a language of her own, we called it Mommanish.  Words would come tumbling out of her mouth a way too fast, out of order or not quite the right ones.  Raising 7 children I’m surprised she had a chance to get a word in edgewise.   It seems that I am becoming my mother.     Last weekend I wrote about International Quilt day.

When Maureen left a comment, I did a bit of research on the day’s origin.   It is National Quilt Day not International Quilt Day.  The National Quilting Association sponsors the holiday,  and have been doing so since June 1991.  The third Saturday of March is now officially National Quilting Day.

Yesterday my DH took me on an emergency run to the Dollar store for bunny tails, as I was not allowed to drive heavy equipment (aka my pickup) while taking Advil.    

I came out and announced, “The Dollar Stores sells Briggs and Stratton yarn.”

“Honey”, he said. “You mean Briggs and Little yarn.”

He chalked it up to the cold medication, but I know better, I’m becoming my mother.

The temperature on our back deck yesterday was 15 degrees from the sun radiating off the bricks.   My DH and I had a picnic lunch on the cat’s quilt on the deck.    Porsche found the whole idea boring.  Notice the snow behind the railings in Porsche’s picture.  Despite the warm temperatures we still have a pile of snow 9 feet deep in the side yard, with more snow in tomorrow’s forecast.

This will make your day

Take a few minutes to check out the latest entry on Kim’s Big Quilting Adventure

http://kimsbigquiltingadventure.blogspot.com/

Attention: Quilters.  Connie Colton has a new quilting directory, Quilt Qua : and is welcoming photos for the show and tell page.

As today is the day to power down for 60 minutes,  check out The Greening of Gavin.    60 minutes once a year is not enough, commit to saving energy every day.

I’m back

It is amazing what two days of bed rest, tylenol, advil, diet orange pop, a kitty purring in my ears and lots of warm wishes from you did for my soul and body.   Today I’m up and about and on the mend.  Thank you everyone who left comments, and thank you Andrea for posting on Thursday.

On Thursday I had no option but to sprawl on the chesterfield watching day time television.  For months I’ve been threatening to cancel the cable as there is little of interest or educational value on any channel except for the Discovery Channel and House & Garden channel.    So in a fever induced haze I decided Thursday was the day.  After speaking with Rajhid for 15 minutes while he repeated my answers to the security questions ending each one with thank you Miss Dally, I was put through to the cancellation department.  Now wouldn’t you think your Company had a problem if you required a whole department for cancellations.

I was no match for Chesley however, she wore me down.  I didn’t cancel but received a 20% percent reduction in the monthly cable bill.  So it wasn’t a complete waste of a day.

So thanks again for your good wishes, I missed you guys!

She has the plague

This is Andrea posting on behalf of Mam (my mom).

She called me up and she sounds like she’s on death’s doorstep. She has the plague. Others may know it as the flu, but in her case she’s barely hanging on. Just ask her, she’ll tell you all about it in great detail. We were only able to talk for a half hour instead of an hour. Even as we speak, she’s taking notes as to who gets what, so if there’s something of hers you want, better say so now.

Apparently, she wanted me to let you know her fingers are too weak to post to the blog. Either that, or her brain has been addled from laying on the couch watching too much mid-afternoon network television. I mean, we talked about fabric and she didn’t even get excited. She must be sick.

Could you leave her some get well wishes to come back to? That’s a subtle hint.

Moose impact

I’m home sick with the plague.  A nasty flu bug has been making the rounds at work and I’ve managed to avoid it until now.   I’m in a tylenol induced coma and my DH is plying me with diet orange pop.  I feel like I’ve been hit by a Mac truck.    

So while I’m laying on the chesterfield suffering from the worst flu ever,  I’m still counting my blessings.    As my nanny would say, you think you got it bad…………..just check out the story below:

Thankfully the driver and passenger survived the impact with a moose. 

 

Check out the rest of the article in the Telegraph Journal, these two young people must have guardian angels working over time.

Better late than never

My husband is a card shopper.  Through the years, he has presented to me sometimes funny, most often beautiful, but always lovingly written cards of all descriptions. I’ve saved each one.

Rarely do I receive the card on the occasion it celebrates.  Often I receive two or three cards at a time. Sometimes  I receive just one.  Like today when I arrived home after work.   On my pillow was an envelope addressed to me.  And inside the envelope…………..

 the Christmas card he bought to give me last year.    You see, my DH buys cards, then hides them, to give to me later.  Thing is, he forgets where he hides the cards.   When he comes across them, tucked away in books, shoved in sock drawers, hidden in the toolbox in the basement. he writes a note inside each one and leaves it on my pillow.

Looking for Santa

Last fall I saw a sweet Santa Claus quilt at the KV Quilt show.    Each Santa was donned in a different colour  flannel shirt and hat, looking more like lumberjacks than Father Christmas.  Canadian eh?   What a great pattern to make with my DH’s plaid shirts.  Recently during a short shopping spree at Value Village I stumbled upon a block of the flannel Santa.   Now all I need is the pattern.     If you know where I can find this pattern please leave a comment.   If not I’ll be forced to deconstruct the block or maybe I can photo copy it and make a paper piece pattern.  Any suggestions?

Speaking of comments, I receive many nice ones on International Quilting Day.  Mainly, thanks to  Karen Griska, of Selvage blog  who posted my pocket Kleenex holder on her site.  How cool is that!